Cruz Bests Rival ‘Outsiders’

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz delivered the best performance of the three main “outsider” candidates, drawing raves from the crowd when he suggested the tone of the CNBC moderators’ questions was fodder for provoking a cage match.

“The questions asked so far illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” he said, reflecting the growing frustration on the stage with questioning from moderators that ranged from tough to outright hostile.

The moment received the highest score of the evening — 98 out of 100 — in a focus group run by Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster. And it showed an aggressiveness both Donald Trump and Ben Carson mostly lacked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aqh8-OOoO4

Cruz’s other highlights came in the form of a passionate defense of the 3 million women who have fallen into poverty during the Obama years, a nod to evangelicals with a brief anecdote about his father leaving when he was 3 and returning to raise him after being born again, and a sharp criticism of the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy.

Donald Trump and Ben Carson, the respective front-runners, didn’t shock and awe but held their own in a debate characterized by fewer attacks between the candidates and a more unified focus on their common enemies — namely Hillary Clinton, big government and, in this particular case, the CNBC moderators whose questions repeatedly sought to entrap the candidates and bait them into cannibalizing one another.

Trump, for one, wasn’t as omnipresent and boisterous as he had been in previous debates. Aside from an early scuffle with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, he did not dish out any major punches, nor was he challenged by anyone else. Trump did set the stage for a contentious evening by blasting John Harwood’s opening question that mocked his presidential ambitions as a “comic book campaign” for proposing a wall between the U.S and Mexico and a flat tax plan.

Another series of aggressive questions from the moderators sought to pin Carson on allegedly dodgy activities at companies where he serves as a director. The exchange quickly crossed the line, and the moderators were reprimanded by a chorus of boos from the audience.

Beyond that moment, Carson was his typical self — unremarkable in his speech and delivery, but coming across as sincere and heartfelt in his motivations — all while showing respect toward his fellow candidates. When asked about his greatest weakness, a question the others either fudged or dodged completely, he pointed to the fact that he was only running for president because hundreds of thousands of supporters were urging him to do so.

Carson recanted his previous support for an oil subsidy program, saying that he changed his mind after going back and studying the issue in more detail. He explained further that he now reckons the government picking winners and losers via subsidies, regulations and too-big-to-fail programs is “a bunch of crap.”

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